The press release says it all:

BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 16, 2011 — Warner Bros. Consumer Products and The LEGO Group announced today a partnership that awards the world’s leading construction toy brand exclusive rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ trilogy and the two films based on THE HOBBIT™.  The multi-year licensing agreement grants access to the library of characters, settings, and stories for THE LORD OF THE RINGS property, as well as films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  LEGO® THE LORD OF THE RINGS construction sets are slated for a rolling global launch beginning in June 2012 in the United States, with LEGO THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY scheduled for later in the year.

“Only LEGO, with their expertise in the construction category, is capable of doing justice to the incredibly imaginative environments depicted in the world of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and the two films based on THE HOBBIT,” said Karen McTier, executive vice president, domestic licensing and worldwide marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “These films give life to amazing worlds and characters and we are thrilled to bring fans these products that deliver an imaginative play experience befitting of these beloved properties.”

The LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS collection will translate into LEGO form the epic locations, scenes and characters of Middle-earth as depicted in all three films, including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

In late 2012, LEGO THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY will give fans of all ages a chance to build and play out the fantastical story and new characters of the legendary Middle-earth adventures depicted in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journeyfrom Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson, slated to premiere December 14, 2012.

“Our collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products has delivered numerous worldwide successes in the construction toy aisle with lines like LEGO HARRY POTTER and LEGO BATMAN, introducing us to loyal audiences who love great stories, strong characters and the toys that they inspire,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing and entertainment for The LEGO Group. “It’s particularly exciting to now be able to create sets based on the fantasy worlds and characters from THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and the two films based on THE HOBBIT, not only because we know they will foster collectability and creative play, but also because these are two properties that our fans have been asking us to create for years.”

Information about the sets and collectible minifigures from both collections will be unveiled at a later date atTheLordoftheRings.LEGO.com.

This is awesome. More later on as sets are eventually revealed!

With the imminent release of episode 4 on PSN this weekend and on Blu-ray in early December, animation studio Sunrise has announced a May 2012 release date for the 5th episode of their ongoing Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA series entitled ‘Black Unicorn’. The series, directed by Kazuhiro Furhashi of Rurouni Kenshin and Hunter x Hunter fame, has been a huge success in Japan. It has also been revealed that the ending to the OVA series will be different than the ending which occurred in the novels that the animation is based upon.

I’ve also included below the HG announcement for the Banshee mobile suit design.

From Gundam Guy.

Episode nine of the Hellsing OVA series will be released in Japan on February 15th 2012. The collector’s edition of the episode also contains another bonus animated short which will most likely be the second ‘episode’ of The Dawn flashback story. The runtime is listed as 45 minutes on amazon.jp and will feature an ending theme sung by Kurosaki Maon.

As exciting as it is to see the OVA series nearly complete in Japan, it is perhaps even nicer news for those in North America that Funimation has finally begun production on their own release of the series. After having announced the license in 2010, there was no word until just last week when and how Funimation would be releasing the Hellsing OVA. Funimation also announced that it has bought the rights to the recently released 8th episode and will begin releasing the series in 2012. For those who enjoy the dub, Funimation also stated that the entire original english vocal cast will be returning to episodes 5-8 after Geneon USA released the first four OVA episodes here in the states on DVD several years ago.

It’s nice to see Hellsing finally getting some attention here in the west and I’m very excited to see how the final books of Kouta Hirano’s original manga will be adapted for the screen.

The trailer features the new opening and ending songs for the film by Susumu Hirasawa and AI. The poster art for the film has also been released, featured here above the video for the trailer. I absolutely cannot wait to see this film.

February will be a good month to be in Japan, I think.

Griffith’s face here accurately describes how I am feeling right now with this wonderful dose of BERSERK AND SUSUMU HIRASAWA. I am happy to be alive.

Isayama Hajime’s breakout manga him Shingeki no Kyojin/Advancing Giants will be adapted into film by Tetsuya Nakashima, whose previous film outings include Kamikaze Girls and the award-winning Confessions.

Hajime began the manga in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009 and has since sold over 3 million copies since last year. The fifth volume was released in Japane last August. Nakashima’s film adaptation is in production now and is due to be released in Japan in the fall of 2013.

Kodansha USA also recently announced that they have acquired the rights for the english edition of Advancing Giants and intend to begin releasing it here in the USA in June 2012.

Early last September, it was announced that Yoshiyuki Tomino (creator and director of Mobile Suit Gundam) was working on a brand-new science fiction project. Now, the first clear images of the project have been released.

Early reports are claiming that the new project, G-Reko, takes place 1000 years after Gundam’s Universal Century Timeline. Space elevators will be a major part of the plot. It isn’t totally clear what form this project will take but it does seem to be for animation.

The title drawing above is by Yoshida Kenichi, the character designer of Eureka Seven who previously worked on Tomino’s last television series King Gainer.

More information later as it becomes available!

From Gundam Guy.

The official website for the upcoming Berserk film updated today with the information that veteran Berserk composer Susumu Hirasawa will be providing the theme song for the film and that Evangelion’s Shiro Sagisu will be composing the film’s soundtrack. This is outrageously cool.

Volume 36 of Kentaro Miura’s epic manga series is scheduled to go on sale on the 23rd of this month which will also coincide with the manga returning from hiatus in the pages of Hakusensha’s Young Animal magazine. A new television commercial for the upcoming film is also being prepared for release and may also begin to be shown on Japanese TV starting on the 23rd as well.

Also, it should be mentioned that Dark Horse comics will be publishing the english edition of volume 35 on October 4th. Since this is the North American edition, no one in the states has any excuse to not buy this.

Berserk Golden Age I: Egg of the Supreme King hits Japanese theaters in January 2012.

At the conclusion of a special television broadcast of Evangelion 2.0 in Japan came a new teaser trailer for the 3rd film in the 4-part series, Evangelion Q. At the end of the painfully short teaser a ‘tentative’ release date is announced for fall 2012.

The entire 10 seconds of footage shown in the teaser focuses upon Asuka and Unit-02 appearing to be in middle of combat in mid-air. Asuka is of course sporting her new plugsuit as well as her fetching new eyepatch due to the injuries she sustained in Evangelion 2.0.

And now the countdown begins….

From Evageeks.

Yesterday, it was revealed that the previously announced new anime project for Rurouni Kenshin will be a 2-episode ‘New Kyoto Arc’ OVA. This new project will cover the Kyoto Arc from Nobuhiro Watsuki’s original manga from Oniwabanshu ninja Makimachi Misao’s perspective.

The new series will reunite animation Studio Deen with original series director Kazuhiro Furuhashi along with composer Noriyuki Asakura and most of the original vocal cast.

As great as it is to see new animation for Rurouni Kenshin, I can’t help but be a little dissapointed to see that the new project is just a recap of the Kyoto Arc. Although by far Rurouni Kenshin’s most popular arc, it was already animated in full in the original television series while the manga’s final arc remains mostly un-animated.

I find it very odd that the producers would ignore what fans of the series have been asking for years, which is to see a fully animated version of the Revenge Arc.  Perhaps, this ‘New Kyoto Arc’ OVA is being used to see how much interest there would be in doing a larger-scale new adaptation of the series. One can only hope.

Otherwise, I find it really interesting that Kazuhiro Furuhashi is back on directing duties for the series as he is still working on the ongoing Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA project. That alone gives me hope that this new Rurouni Kenshin project will turn out well.

The first episode of the new OVA series will be shown in Japanese theaters this December.

From Comic Natalie.

With Teatime coming up on its 3rd anniversary I’ve decided to open up a Tumblr site! The Tumblr site will be supplementary to this one and will provide another way for me to have fun posting images and videos of stuff that I think is cool. So, while you are waiting for new updates and news about all of the cool shows and movies coming out in the future you can keep yourself distracted with the new Teatime with Godzilla Tumblr site.